BOB BESTLER - ON THE LOOSE

Two lasting images of Strom Thurmond will always stand out in my mind.

The first occurred in January 1997 at an S.C. ball I attended at the Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

The event was held on the eve of the second inauguration of Democrat Bill Clinton, but the runaway hit of the evening was a Republican named Strom.

Many of the Democrats gathered there probably had never voted for the senator, but when he showed up, they were drawn to him like moths to light.

Thurmond arrived late at night, then stood in the central hall while hundreds of Democrats came up to say hello.

Despite his age - he was 95 then - he remained standing for more than an hour, greeting everyone, smiling for dozens of photos, shaking hand after hand.

The other image comes from the annual Chitlin' Strut in Salley, a small town south of Columbia.

I had gone to Salley to see if its cooks had found a way to make chitlins taste good (they hadn't) and to write a column about it.

A highlight of the event was the annual Chitlin' Strut Parade - and the highlight of the parade was a U.S. senator named Strom.

Riding precariously on the back of a convertible, he waved and smiled, and the people responded with applause and cheers. They loved their senator - and he obviously loved them.

I've had my share of fun with Strom in this column. During his last Senate campaign, I wrote that when you consider the age of the pyramids, Strom was really pretty young. Another time I argued for putting his likeness on South Carolina's quarter - an idea I still like, frankly.

We were political opposites, but my respect for him extends back more than a quarter century when, as an editorial writer in North Carolina, I applauded his quickness to adapt to the civil-rights laws he had opposed so vigorously.

Thurmond was, as I recall, the first civil-rights opponent to hire blacks for his staff - a big deal back then.

Last year, political columnist David Broder, writing about the vindictive racial attitudes of Jesse Helms, noted how Helms and Thurmond are often linked.

"But there is a big difference between them," Broder wrote. "Thurmond, who holds the record for the longest anti-civil rights filibuster, accepted change. For three decades, he has treated blacks and black institutions as respectfully as he treats all other constituents."

The reason is simple: No one ever loved this state and all of its people more than Strom Thurmond; it is likely no one ever will.